Nice class, bad grade!!!

Strange….right? But it is at it seems. Today, I was happy because I had to teach again after a period of forced vacation because of the terrible rain; I had the opportunity to prepare my class and all the activities since last week. I read everything in order to be well prepared for this first day, and even I tried to improve my class by adding more enthusiasm as other teachers have told me to do it, and also I follow the recommendations that my tutor gave in the last feedback.

But guess what? Now that I followed her recommendations, she told me to change the things almost in the same way that I did them in the last class. So I got confused and frustrated because I’ve never crowded her expectations. She just evaluated me one activity because she did not like, but she never talked about the rest of them or said something positive about my class. I don’t like this evaluation because it is not fair, and it won’t help me to improve; it will just help to make me feel terrible!

Talking about the class, I greeted the students, and I asked them about their activities in the last week, and if they had had any kind of problem with the rain, but thanks God they didn’t. After that I made a little warm-up related with the new topic in which the students had a little fun. Then, I asked them to read a paragraph; it was related with jobs and present participle, so I didn’t want to talk too much about jobs because I did it in the last class. I asked them to work in pairs and read aloud to each other because I’ve noticed that they’re afraid to speak and pronounce the words. For me it was a nice idea, but my tutor thought the opposite.

I asked them about the reading, and they answered very well. Besides, I told them to underline the sentences or expressions in present perfect, and almost all of them confused simple past with present perfect. Then, I explained the grammar and the difference between the two tenses, and they got it easily.

Finally, I made two controlled activities; the first one was a fill in the blanks activity for them to practice "have" and "has" and the other one was a crossword for them to practice the verbs in the participle form.

I enjoyed my class, and I think the students as well, also they were participating and doing all the activities. I know that a grade defines knowledge, but I don’t think this grade will define me because I’m glad that I’ve improved my skills as a teacher, and thanks God, I don't have nerves anymore!

Every class is a new experience!!!

Hello friends!!

After two weeks of vacations, I had to come back to my teaching practicum, and now I want to share my new experience during my last class. I´m happy because I´m almost done with these practices; I´m in the third period, but as I said before, every class is a new experience. Guess what??? During my last class, I didn´t introduced myself and of course, I didn´t notice it until my tutor told me during the feedback, and I was reflecting on myself and what a shame on me! This is my last period and I´m doing things that were supposed to do in the first period instead of the last one. That means that I have to pay more attention because now I have a new group; though I already know them, I have to follow the same steps.

I tried to make the class funny because in that way students learn and they don´t get bored; also the time passes quickly. I started the class with the warm-up which was about jobs; it was review of some jobs and occupations that the students supposed to know already. Then, I had to make the presentation related with jobs, so I took a reading of a book and I change it into strips for the students to order and read it.

According to me, the class was nice because the students were completing the activities that I had planned; though the reading took 35 minutes, but I gave them the chance to read and practice. I did it in that way because my previous tutors had told me to let them read, but my actual tutor told me that I took too much time in that activity. I know that each person has a different mind and sometimes I get confused, but for future classes, I will try to do my best with the activities that I consider appropriate for the students.

My last class!!!

Hello my dear friends!!

Today, I want to share the experience of my last class with the advanced students. During the 1^st and 2^nd class, I was kind of frustrated, but since the 3^rd class, the things were going on better, and in this 4^th class, I can say ¨good job¨ to myself. Thanks God, I was not nervous when teaching the class, even I did not get frustrated when planning it; I just tried to follow the topic and to look for interesting activities according their age.

I started the class with the same warm-up as in my previous class because I noticed that they liked it, and I promised them to do it again in next class; moreover, I thought that it would be interesting in order to introduce the new topic.  The students had a lot of fun with it, and they were trying to do their best. After the warm-up, I taught the grammar notes with a matching activity which was pretty easy; also I invented some tenses in order to know if the students were paying attention and they could notice them and also to have fun. I wrote the examples of the warm-up for them to notice that those sentences were useful, also I asked them their own sentences, and finally, I asked them what they have understood about the new topic, applying the CCQ.

After the grammar notes, students did some practice on the book, and we checked it together. One advantage for this activity was lack of books because almost the half of the class does not have it. The next activity was similar to the first practice, but in this case, I asked them to do it orally, and later, we checked the sentences together. I have planned a funny activity for them to enjoy and to practice the topic, but I did not have enough time, so I could not do it, but I gave all the material to my tutor and she was glad and excited, and she told me that she has liked the idea and she was going to do it later.

When my class was over, I thanked the students and the teacher. My tutor told me that she had enjoyed my class, and I was very happy to finish this period because in some moments I just wanted to give up. Thanks God I did it!!! =)

A great class!!!

Hello!!! Today I want to share my last experience in the teaching area. To tell the truth, I am totally fascinated with this class, and I can tell you that this is the best class that I have taught. I noticed it since the beginning, I mean since the moment that I started to prepare the class because it was the first time that I was not nervous in the previous day of teaching, I did not feel pressure of teaching, and I felt that I was going to do something good. It would be because I tried to enjoy my class when preparing it, so it helped me not to feel frustrated as I used to feel in the previous classes.

First of all, I started the class with a whispering activity though I had just five students, but later, the rest of them were incorporating into the groups. I noticed that the students had fun with this activity, but what they did not know is that they were practicing the topic because the sentences that I included were related to it. Something that I should have done is to give more sentences, but I promised to do it again in the next class, and I will do it.

After that, I had to do an activity in order to make pairs, but I could not do it because they were just 20 students and the activity was prepared for 30 students, so I had to change it and decide in the moment what else to do, and I let them choose their pairs in that way they had to create a dialogue in which they had to include the topic. It seems a little bit hard, but I showed them that it was not. I gave an example, and I told them to choose an interesting topic. There were some pairs that were undecided, so I asked them what things they liked in order to help them choosing the topic.

For me, it was unbelievable because all the pairs did the dialogue even the ones that usually talk a lot, and they did a good job with very good imagination, and it was nice to transmit it into that way. We had a good time when they had to perform it in front of the class, but unfortunately, with much respect, that teacher Christian arrived with a representative of the embassy of the United States, so I could not listen to all of them. But they had the opportunity to learn about the culture of the U.S. and practice the listening skills.

Now, I feel enthusiasm of continue teaching, and I am sure that I am learning a lot with this practices.

A hard class!!!

Hello my dear friends!!!

Now, I want to share with you my last experience when teaching Advanced level. Though I tried to do my best, the things did not go so good for me because students were very hyperactive during the whole class, and that made me feel a little anxious and with less confidence.

I prepared my class the best that I could, but it was not enough in the practice because sometimes I did not know what to do with the students as they were doing a lot of noise. It was just a group of boys, who were talking a lot, but that group distracted the whole class, and I told them sometimes to be quiet, but they denied doing it and because of the age, I think they are difficult to manage.

Since I have taught them once, I tried to prepare activities which they could enjoy. I brought a song for teaching the grammar notes and for them to sing it. Thanks God they liked the song and had a good time with it. That´s why I took advantage of it, and I assigned a free activity for them to practice speaking; that activity was related with the song and with the topic in discourse.

An observation that I had was to take more time explaining the grammar notes, I did not do it long because some teachers had told me to do it short, but I think each teacher is different and I have to respect each comment in order to improve my knowledge.

Though this was my second class, I was so nervous as my first class, and I do not why but I cannot avoid it. 

My first entry of the second period!!

Hello friends!! Today, I started my second period in the teaching practicum, and I want to tell you about my experience with the students of Advanced English I. Since some days ago, I had been very nervous because I had to teach advanced students and I did not know them either the teacher. I tried to control myself, but the most I tried the worst I was. When I observed the class, I saw that the class was pretty big and the students were very noisy; for that reason, I got more nervous. So I tried to study a lot in order to teach my class and to be well prepared for it.

At the beginning, I was nervous, but since I started the class, I felt better and more comfortable. The warm up was quite short and it did not have to do anything with the topic; I did it for the students to relax and have fun. My tutor told me that the warm up was nice and that she has never seen it before. Later on, I taught grammar and to tell the truth, I was anxious for teaching it because I was really prepared for doing so, and I organized well my class. Also, my tutor told me that she has liked my explanation.

After teaching grammar, I let the students practice on it by doing some exercises in which they worked really well, I was happy because most of them have understood the topic. I tried to monitor the students in order to check if they were working; though the teacher told me that I usually did it in the left part of the group, <> so next time I will do it in both parts.

Something that really helped me was that I managed well the topic, so when the students asked something, I was able to answer them. Something that I have to change is my voice in certain moments; though my tutor told me that I have a good voice, she also told that it would be a good idea to change the intonation sometimes in order to get the students’ attention when they’re speaking a lot. =)